Maid-Rite Marshalltown IA • 1928

When Cliff and Emma Taylor paid $300 for the third Maid-Rite franchise in 1928, they brought the loose meat sandwich—finely ground beef cooked fresh in a cast-iron cooker—to Marshalltown. Four generations later, the Taylor family still serves the same simple, savory sandwich on a bun with mustard, pickles, and onions, a formula so perfected it has remained unchanged for nearly a century. The beef still sizzles in cast iron, and every bite tastes like Iowa history.